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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23112124">helping the helpless</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/junebugtwin/pseuds/junebugtwin'>junebugtwin</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety Attacks, Childhood Trauma, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/F, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Redemption, Swearing, Violence, lena needs a hug, local sailor attempts to talk rebel teen out of a panic attack, magica needs to die</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 15:48:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,098</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23112124</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/junebugtwin/pseuds/junebugtwin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>He thought she was a moronic little girl, forced into this by some psychopath, too dumb to know that the moment he was free he was going to knock her out and send her packing to the authorities. <br/>But she wasn’t stupid, not in that way at least. Magica had taught her lots of things, most of them completely useless, but there was one thing she had proved to her that was actually useful, albeit not on purpose- no one could be trusted. <br/>---<br/>Donald is not Lena's enemy, though she doesn't know that yet. Fortunately for her, he takes it upon himself to teach her.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lena (Disney: DuckTales)/Webby Vanderquack</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>57</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>helping the helpless</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Donald adopting Lena!!! A Very Good concept. </p><p>Fair warning, this fic is a bit more dark than canon, I tried to take a realistic look at what living with someone like magica would do to you. And also, I valiantly tried to spell out the donald duck speak, but its. Well. It's hard to understand, which is kind of the point.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lena kept her hands steady, even as the unpleasant burn of magic coursed painfully through her veins. She didn’t get why wizards and stuff got so addicted to the feeling, it in no way felt good to her- more like wasps stinging her muscles repeatedly than ‘destiny singing in your blood’ or whatever it was that her aunt had dramatically monologued about.</p><p>But she didn’t dare move, pink energy flowing from her fingertips directly, and forcefully towards the duck she had pinned against the wall. You can do all sorts of crazy stuff with magic, but Lena just preferred to use hers as sort of an extension of herself, like a very long powerful extra arm. She knew how to do the more creative spells, but she didn’t particularly care to waste more energy, not when this was just as effective and much easier to use.</p><p>The duck with the fluffy black coat over sailor uniform(?) squawked at her angrily- literally. She had no idea what the fuck he was saying. He sounded sort of like a squeaky toy if it had been possessed, and extraordinarily pissed. She suspected it had to do less with the fact she was probably pushing him hard enough into the wall to bruise, and more to do with her Aunt terrorizing his children/ nephews/ small-ducks-he-took-care-of in the background.  Not much he could do about it here, trapped like he was, but he probably wasn’t thinking straight- fear tended to do that to you- she had plenty of experience. Love did that to you too- caring about people meant going crazy if they were in danger- that she had a little less experience with.</p><p>She heard a shriek of terror behind her- belonging to one of the identical triplets that she never bothered to tell apart- before the scream was abruptly cut off. Lena felt her stomach plummet.</p><p> <em>Oh god</em>.</p><p>Nausea swirled around sickly in the place where her organs used to be, and she had to pay extra attention to keep her suddenly shaking hands upright and conducting magic. </p><p>Was- was one of them fucking <em>dead</em>. Lena huffed out a panicked breath, quickly glancing upwards to see if the sailor duck had noticed her slip up. He hadn’t- his eyes stuck open in a horrified stare looking behind her, his screeches of indecipherable protest no longer present. Fuck.</p><p>No. No- it was okay- Magica, Aunt Magica- Lena’s mind tumbled over itself uselessly. Aunt Magica would never kill a kid- not if they were related to Scrooge McDuck – she’d torture them in front of him, not just kill them in some random forest. Right. He was alive probably. Just trapped or, or something. Which wasn’t great actually, because it meant Aunt Magica was going to hurt him, hurt him a <em>lot</em>, and for a long time- but- but- fuck.</p><p>Fuck.</p><p>Lena barely repressed the urge to pull at her feathers, to squeeze her arm till it bruised- she could feel herself spiral into panic, and she- she had to hurt somehow, keep herself aware and present, and fuck was she going to have to watch some little fucking kid get violently mutilated? <em>Was she going to have to participate?</em></p><p>Lena stopped herself from vomiting at the last second, small body shaking with the effort. By now she could tell her captive <em>was</em> watching her, mostly because she assumed Magica had taken the- the <em>abduction</em> elsewhere as the other kids had ran.  She was now the most interesting thing in his sight, and she was almost definitely on the verge of a panic attack. She wasn’t supposed to show weakness- she didn’t want him to-</p><p>-What the fuck was she thinking; he wasn’t going to <em>hit</em> her. He was literally incapable of it- he was magically glued to a fucking wall! He couldn’t hurt her up there, no matter how much he may have wanted to. Lena let out another unsteady breath, desperately trying to will herself into a more conductive state.</p><p>“…Gaar chuy kokay?” Lena’s head shot up at the ducks voice, worried for a moment that in her daze she had forgotten to keep him contained. Luckily her idiocy had not overridden her automatic use of magic, and the odd duck was still smushed against the wall. She still had no idea what he was saying, but his tone had been weirdly, well cautious obviously, but almost…gentle? Why?</p><p>“I can’t f-fucking understand you.” She snapped- except her voice came out a lot less confidently snarky than she had hoped and a lot more desperate.  Lena took in a few more quick breaths, hating her stupid lungs- no matter how much air she got she was still struggling to actually <em>breathe</em>. He cocked his head, eyebrows scrunching at her in an odd expression.</p><p>“Chuy gnodnt chquant to qwirkk whiff xerr, xhuuy chuy?” He spoke, and Lena only guessed it was a question because of the inflection at the end. He sounded curious, and like he was coming to some sort of realization. Lena practically growled- it’d be great if she spoke whoopy cushion, but as it was she had no fucking clue what he was saying! Fuck her, she was going to pass fucking out- she couldn’t stop imagining one of those kids all torn open like-</p><p>The duck interrupted her train of thought, apparently noting her frustration.</p><p>“Xghhuyy. Gaaann. Khellp Chuuy.” He pronounced slowly, apparently trying to be more clear. It did help a bit actually, Lena slowly went over his words in her head. ‘I gann’- no, ‘<em>can’</em>-‘ kelp- help chuy? ..you!</p><p>I can help you.</p><p>Oh. Something peaceful settled in Lena, a small part of her relaxing marginally. Her confusion lifted as she finally understood- he was trying to <em>trick</em> her. God she was so stupid- of course he was! He was those kids guardian, he was desperate to go save them, and if he couldn’t physically get her out of his way then he had to do it verbally. She almost felt bad for him- she was around fourteen, give or take a year, and she looked it. In fact she probably looked younger- she was tall, but she was malnourished as fuck, and the hoodie she had on was stolen from a duck far bigger than her. She must have looked very small and vulnerable. And easy to fool.</p><p>He thought she was a moronic little girl, forced into this by some psychopath, too dumb to know that the moment he was free he was going to knock her out and send her packing to the authorities.</p><p>But she wasn’t stupid, not in that way at least. Magica had taught her lots of things, most of them completely useless, but there was one thing she had proved to her that was actually useful, albeit not on purpose- no one could be trusted.</p><p>No one <em>owed</em> you anything- oh they might say they do, might kick up a fuss about how every child should have a loving family, and every person should have a home, and no little kid should have to worry about being assaulted or harassed or hit.  But every single time she had ever bought into those promises she had been betrayed. Adults dint give a <em>shit</em> about foster children, they only cared about their own snot nosed brats, and sometimes not even then. And not a single person in any town in any country she had ever been to had ever even <em>dared</em> to meet a homeless persons eyes as they walked past, never mind consider their well-being.  And Lena got hit all the fucking time- it didn’t take fucking Sherlock Holmes to look at some bruised up kid and understand that they probably needed help, yet low and behold, everyone suddenly found themselves with more important things to do. ‘It wasn’t their business’. She had heard a quote once, about the good of the world being everyone’s business, but in her experience the opposite was almost always true.</p><p>Magica could come back here right now, throw her around tell she was black and blue, and it. still. wouldn’t. <strong><em>matter</em></strong>. Because she was expendable. And worthless. And evil. She was Magica DeSpells little henchman, it didn’t matter how old she was, or that she didn’t want to be here. What she wanted never fucking mattered.</p><p>She snarled violently, relishing in the confusion that appeared on the old ducks face. She felt better, more in control. It looked like he had actually managed to distract her from her panic attack, though completely by accident.</p><p>“You can’t do <em>shit </em>asshole. Your stuck to a wall if you haven’t noticed- and your gonna stay stuck ‘tell my aunts done killing the <em>rest</em> of your fucking kids.” She sneered meanly, taking immense pleasure on the revulsion and fear that sprung to his features. <em>Good</em>. He thought she was an easy mark, and she fucking <em>wasn’t</em>.  He’d figure out soon enough that she was lying, that Magica was capturing the ducklings rather than outright murdering them, but by then it wouldn’t matter.</p><p>None of this fucking mattered. She was just a tool to Magica, and soon she was going to be a useless one, and she was going to get thrown in the fucking trash. Her freedom that she was promised was an obvious lie, but what else was she gonna do- <em>disobey Magica?</em> She didn’t have a choice here and they both knew it. She shouldn’t have to feel bad some spoiled rich shit-heads were finally getting their share of bad luck- a tiny portion of a quarter of a fucking speck of what hers was, mind you.</p><p>“Chuy geedd to kclet hhmeeh xho! Kleese!” Lena immediately understood what that last word was- ‘please’. He was begging her to let him free probably, to help him somehow. Stupid. Stupid. Insignificant little moron. Something frustrated and hot and painful was banging in her skull- and she hated it because she should have been triumphant- someone was begging <em>her</em> finally, after years of her being on the other side- and yet she felt guilt lingering like blood on the back of her tongue.</p><p>“Don’t you understand! Even if I was dumb enough to let you go, there is nothing <em>you can do</em>! You can’t run away and you can’t save your kids, You’re helpless!”</p><p>
  <em>Like me.</em>
</p><p>Lena’s arms dropped finally, aching with the effort of keeping them up for minutes on end. The magic cut off like a light switch being flipped, and the sailor duck fell harshly onto the forest floor. Lena herself mirrored him, letting her legs give out so that she was sitting on the cold ground , her legs bend awkwardly at the knees. Christ.</p><p>She couldn’t do this; she couldn’t be someone else’s Magica. She was just as weak and pathetic as her aunt told her she was, she couldn’t even deny it. She knew this would mean punishment, but she just couldn’t find it within herself to <em>care</em>. Her emotions had shut down, apparently drained from the sudden alternating bouts of fear, loathing and shock.</p><p>She just wanted things to be easy- for something to go okay for once. Baring that impossibility she was open to just fucking dying already.</p><p>She closed her aching eyelids, prepared to let her hostage do whatever it was he wanted to her. She was so tired.</p><p>She heard footsteps crunch through the foliage in front of her, and kept her body from flinching instinctively. There was a pause, and then a hand placed itself softly on her shoulder. Lena waited of it to push her to the ground, or for it to dig into her flesh, but nothing happened.</p><p>“Xhiuy Hchavve to xho khet mmuhy xchids xhow… kleese chayy xhhere, xhhwill khellp chuy affher.” Lena didn’t even try to decipher that mess, too shocked to even begin to process his jumbled words. He sounded <em>kind</em>. He wasn’t doing anything to her. Tears immediately flooded to her eyes and Lena held them back to the best of her ability, squeezing them shut. She felt something warm wrap quietly around her, and she realized with some astonishment that it was the coat that he’d been wearing. He’d given her his fucking cloak.</p><p>Lena curled up, no longer able to support her own body, the heavy and soothing weight of the jacket calming some primal fight or flight instinct within her. She would say that she’d felt safer than she ever had before, but she’d never even had that experience to compare this to.</p><p>
  <em>Please, let things turn out just this once.</em>
</p><p> </p>
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